Ban Chang Prospect Extended By 1km

• Blackstone (ASX:BSX) has extended the strike of the Ban Chang prospect by more than 1km, with “step out” reconnaissance style drilling intersecting high-grade mineralization:
  • BC20-03 9.8m @ 1.45% Ni, 0.9% Cu, 0.08% Co 0.70g/t PGE2
    from 57.05m
    incl. 5.7m @ 2.07% Ni, 1.08% Cu, 0.12% Co & 0.95/t PGE from 60.0m
    incl. 1.85 @ 3.59% Ni, 1.18% Cu, 0.20% Co & 1.97g/t PGE from 63.35m
    2 Platinum (Pt) + Palladium (Pd) + Gold (Au)
• Blackstone’s drill hole BC20-03 is located more than 1km along strike from Blackstone’s maiden drill hole at Ban Chang (ASX 17/06/20) (Refer to Figure 1) which delivered the high-grade result of:
  • BC20-01
    Incl.
    5.2m @ 0.66% Ni, 0.73% Cu, 0.04% Co & 0.79g/t PGE from 58.0m
    1.5m @ 2.20% Ni, 2.12% Cu, 0.13% Co & 2.66g/t PGE from 58.5m
    incl. 1.05m @ 2.98% Ni, 1.22% Cu, 0.18% Co & 3.43g/t PGE from 58.5m
• Blackstone’s four maiden drill holes at Ban Chang have all intersected massive sulfide nickel
  over a 1.2km strike within a 1.2km long massive sulfide target zone defined by high priority
  electromagnetic (EM) plates (Refer to Figure 1);
• Assays are still pending for drill holes BC 20-02 (ASX 03/06/20) which intersected 1.2m of massive sulfide veins (MSV) and BC 20-04 (ASX 11/06/20) which intersected 15.4m of sulfide vein mineralisation, BC20-02 assays delayed due to COVID-19 related transport disruptions;
• Blackstone continues to test high priority EM targets generated from 25 MSV prospects in the
  Ta Khoa nickel sulfide district to supplement a potential bulk open pit mining scenario at Ban Phuc and the King Cobra discovery zone (KCZ).
• Blackstone is targeting MSV prospects analogous to the Ban Phuc MSV, where previous owners
  mined 975kt of high-grade ore at average grades of 2.4% Ni & 1.0% Cu from an average vein
  width of 1.3m, producing 20.7kt Ni, 10.1kt Cu and 0.67kt Co;
• Blackstone’s Scoping Study on downstream processing to produce nickel sulfate for the lithiumion battery industry and a Ban Phuc maiden resource are on track for completion in Q3, CY20;
• Downstream processing potential supported by $6.8 million investment from EcoPro Co Limited,
  the world’s second largest nickel-rich cathode materials manufacturer, completed in April 2020.

Blackstone Minerals’ Managing Director Scott Williamson commented:

“Our latest assays confirmed a new zone of high grade mineralisation which was previously untested. We have demonstrated strong potential for a bulk underground mining scenario at Ban Chang which could be significantly larger scale than the previously mined Ban Phuc massive sulfide underground mine. At Ban Phuc, the previous owners successfully mined a narrow massive sulfide vein at much lower nickel prices than today. With bulk underground mining and the potential for significant PGE credits, we could be looking at a very economic mining scenario at Ban Chang.

“We have now drilled significant massive sulfide nickel mineralisation over 1km of strike at Ban Chang and our in-house geophysics crew continues to test for further massive sulfide mineralisation. Ban Chang is the first of 25 MSV targets to be tested throughout the Ta Khoa NiCu-PGE district, leaving plenty of upside for adding high-grade feed to a bulk open pit mining scenario at Ban Phuc.”

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